Courses required for an engineering degree are designed to provide the student with a sound technical foundation for work in industry. However, in most cases these courses do not address the terminology and common practices that an engineer must know to design, implement, checkout and commission a process control system. Universities can help bridge this gap by introducing control course labs that are based on an industrial control system. However, in most cases a new engineer must learn industry terminology, tools, and practices through on the job training. To enhance and speed up this leaning process, Emerson has established a four (4) week boot camp for new engineers that work in our engineering centers. Instructors for the boot camp are pulled from Emerson’s measurement, valve and control system divisions. This last week I had the pleasure of being the boot camp instructor for process control. The class presentation material was taken from Emerson’s education class 9025 that is based on the book I co-authored with Mark Nixon, Control Loop Foundation. The class presentation closely follows the topic addressed in the book.

The 21 students attending boot camp received a copy of Control Loop Foundation. In the class the students obtain hands on experience by performing many of the book’s 19 workshops. The students used their laptop web browser to access the book’s web site to address workshop exercises. A picture of the students in boot camp is shown below.

Each workshop in Control Loop Foundation includes a dynamic process simulation and control module that illustrates a basic control technique or an industrial application. Anyone may access the book’s web site and perform the workshops using their computer or iPad web browser. If you would like to attend the 4 1/2 day Control Loop Foundation class 9025, the next class in Austin, TX is scheduled for the week of Nov 5th, 2012. Also, the class is available on-site and through our education department in Manila, Austrilia, and New Zealand. Registration for scheduled 9025 classes can be done on-line.